I was at a Girl Friend shoot back in November when I experience my first major failure with an AR15 - the bolt in my oldest rifle broke at the cam pin hole.  Needless to say I was just about to soil myself when I looked down and saw half of the bolt attempting to extract itself with a live round halfway in the chamber , but I quickly dropped out the nearly full magazine whipped out the pocket knife and knocked the broken bolt and half chambered round out the mag well.  Here are a few pictures FishKepr took after I extracted all the pieces of the bolt:


I’ve had the rifle since late 2001, so it was well out of any warranty period, but I went ahead and contacted Bushmaster anyway.  They were great about it, had me send in the BCG, looked it over, then sent it back with a new bolt.  I’ve run ~1k through it so far with the new bolt and its been flawless.

Before the cool-aid drinkers start chiming in, this rifle has seen a few miles:
2002 - 500 rounds (Cabellas)
2003 - 2260 rounds (1k XM193, 760 S&B, 500-1k? Win)
2004 - 2500 rounds (1k XM193, 1k S&B, 500 Win)
2005 - 5500 rounds (1k XM193, 1k S&B, 1k Win, 2.5k Rem)
That’s just under 11k for those keeping track -- the number may actually be higher; I’ve purchased a few more rifles since 2004 so I only counted the ammo I can remember using exclusively in this rifle, although it could be up to 4k higher.

I've never seen that before.  Ya gotta check that bolt and carrier very closely everytime you clean your rifle... you never know what you might see one day...

wow! good thing you didn't get hurt

Quoted: Ya gotta check that bolt and carrier very closely everytime you clean your rifle...

I agree and I do (although much closer now ).  When I put the two pieces together except for a chip at the inside upper right you couldn't tell there was a fracture.

Quoted: wow! good thing you didn't get hurt

That's what I was thinking!  Somebody must be watching out for me.

That's cool that Bushy took care of you.  They're pretty high in my book.

Quoted: That's cool that Bushy took care of you.  They're pretty high in my book.

Agreed, while Bushmaster has always been high in my book - this experience has only served to solidify their position at the top.

Glad Bushie took care of ya. Wow...thats a nasty failure to have.

Hows your barrel look after all those rounds ?-- is it a chrome boar ?

Quoted: Glad Bushie took care of ya. Wow...thats a nasty failure to have.

Yah, me too.  Despite what it looks like it really wasn’t that nasty, I just pulled the trigger, click, looked at the port and saw the bolt sticking out (thank god for SPORTS).

Quoted: Quoted: Ya gotta check that bolt and carrier very closely everytime you clean your rifle... I agree and I do (although much closer now ).  When I put the two pieces together except for a chip at the inside upper right you couldn't tell there was a fracture.

Aw heck haven't you ever heard of JB Weld? Why are wasting your time contacting BM? You could have fixed it yourself in 10 minutes.

Quoted: Hows your barrel look after all those rounds ?-- is it a chrome boar ?

Dirty… actually it’s held up quite well.
It has a chromed line chamber and bore, I’m sure the back side of the barrel extension is on its way to being worn, but I can’t see it so out of sight out of mind (famous last words).  My best three shot groups are still sub MOA at 100 yards (when using a bipod and 10x scope) so I’m not ready to retire it just yet.

Edit for spelling, but pigs are great chromed too

Quoted: Aw heck haven't you ever heard of JB Weld? Why are wasting your time contacting BM? You could have fixed it yourself in 10 minutes.

JB Weld, that’s for wusses - I'm sure I could have scrounged up some used chewing gum and it would have been fine.

Quoted: It happens to the best of them.  The better the overall quality, the less frequent it happens. img273.imageshack.us/img273/4213/brokenboltcleanedup6yo.jpg

Stick,  what brand/make are those bolts?

TS

When you're dealing with over 50,000PSI shit is bound to break.

Who me?

Exact same thing happened to me last year with my 94 vintage Bushmaster Bolt. It lost a Lugging lock (and kept working) at the 12K rd count in day 2 of a 3 day class. put a spare bolt in and finished the class. Called Bushmaster and received an RMA # no questions asked. I stripped the bolt of the ejector/extractor/gas rings and they sent me a NIW complete bolt for free ($55 value)

Can't ask for much more then that.

Quoted: Quoted: It happens to the best of them.  The better the overall quality, the less frequent it happens. img273.imageshack.us/img273/4213/brokenboltcleanedup6yo.jpg Stick,  what brand/make are those bolts? TS

If he said the best of them, they must be Colt...


BTW:  I have never seen a chromelined BOAR!  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: It happens to the best of them.  The better the overall quality, the less frequent it happens. img273.imageshack.us/img273/4213/brokenboltcleanedup6yo.jpg Stick,  what brand/make are those bolts? TS If he said the best of them, they must be Colt... BTW:  I have never seen a chromelined BOAR!

Agreed! Bling-bling on a wild hog!

Hmmmm, I am thinking that around 10k is a good limit to replace the bolt on a semi-auto with carbine gas system just based on the info I've read and the few broken bolts I've seen.

It seems like splits at the cam pin hole or snapped lugs are the primary things that break.

Quoted: It happens to the best of them.  The better the overall quality, the less frequent it happens.

I clicked on this thread to see this pic!

Quoted: I was at a Girl Friend shoot back in November

Wait, you guys have some kind of organized execution of your female S.O.'s?

You seem so cavalier about it that I must assume this is just common in your area, is this a state sponsored thing?

Quoted: Quoted: I was at a Girl Friend shoot back in November Wait, you guys have some kind of organized execution of your female S.O.'s? You seem so cavalier about it that I must assume this is just common in your area, is this a state sponsored thing?

Quoted: Quoted: BTW:  I have never seen a chromelined BOAR!   Agreed! Bling-bling on a wild hog!

Guess you haven’t seen their latest catalog…

Thanks for the correction.

Quoted: Wait, you guys have some kind of organized execution of your female S.O.'s? You seem so cavalier about it that I must assume this is just common in your area, is this a state sponsored thing?

Yeah it’s fairly common, keeps the women in line and our skills up.  Getting the license is a real pain though.